The Chief Operations Officer does a little of everything, including
running sensor scans, handling communications, monitoring ship-wide status
and functions. Additionally, he or she can pilot the ship, control tractor
beams and transporters, even arrange power distribution to major systems
during emergency situations. A jack of all trades, Ops manager is a key
position and anyone functioning as an Ops manager should take care to
monitor all happenings in the sim because the CO will often be relying
heavily on the information the Ops manager can provide.

MEDICAL

The Chief Medical Officer is responsible for maintaining the health and
physical well-being of the crew as well as treating the injured,
pronouncing the dead and performing autopsies when required. This can
definitely be one of the hardest positions to play but it can also be the
most recognized. The medical team should make sure that the crew is in
good health by performing routine physicals. Medical personnel are almost
always in sick bay but will frequently go on away team missions,
especially when casualties are reported or expected or when the reason for
the away team is medical in nature (such as providing aid to victims of a
disaster or investigating an outbreak of disease).

FLIGHT
CONTROL

The Chief Flight Control (or helm) Officer controls the speed and
direction of the ship. The helmsman can also handle sensors, access
communications and monitor ship-wide status, should the need arise.
However, those responsibilities are more usually left to Ops or Tactical.
This position can be slow at times, especially if the ship is simply in
orbit around a planet, so it is very often considered acceptable to work
with Ops and Tactical in some situations. During times of high risk
maneuvers helm is one of the key positions on the ship. Shuttle pilots and
maintanence technicians are part of this department as well.

SCIENCE

The Chief Science Officer duties fall under the Sciences, often works in
tandem with Medical or Engineering to help analyze a situation facing the
crew. Science personnel routinely use sensor readings, tricorders and any
other data collecting/analyzing equipment at their disposal in order to
gain an understanding of the things the crew encounters on missions as
well as solve any problems encounters with such things might pose. This
position generally calls for strong creative and improvisational
abilities, especially when faced with unknown substances and species. The
CO will often instruct you (via e-mail or IM) in the general information
to 'discover' during the sim, but will usually leave it up to you to come
up with the specifics.

COUNSELING

The Chief Counselor is responsible for the mental and emotional well-being
of the crew members. The Counselor periodically sees each crew member to
evaluate his or her mental and emotional well-being, much as the doctors
in sick bay perform routine physicals on the crew to screen for potential
physical problems and insure, as best they can, that the crew's physical
health is maintained. The Counselor will also hold sessions with crew
members who have health concerns and make appointments or may contact a
crew member to make an appointment for evaluation at the instigation of a
Department Head or higher (just who has the authority to do this and under
what circumstances varies from sim to sim). Counselors usually have some
sort of empathic or telepathic abilities, although this is not a must by
any means. This position can be very dramatic and interesting and the
counseling sessions can often lead to interesting joint logs and subplots.
The Counselor will generally be most busy during the sim when
communicating with non-Federation species and advising the Commanding
Officer regarding what he/she senses. He or she will also play an
important role in diplomatic missions and in those missions that feature
people dealing with strong emotions or mental aberrations.

SECURITY/TACTICAL

The Chief Secutity/Tactical Officer is in charge of ship, station, starbase or
outpost offense and defense. Has direct control of phasers, photon
torpedoes, shields and any and all weapons or defense mechanisms. Also
controls tractor beams, gives damage reports and status reports in regard
to weapons, defense and ship integrity and can control Communications, if
necessary. Some of these duties may be given to Ops instead, if both posts
are present in the sim. This is can be one of the more exciting positions
on the ship because Sec/Tac is heavily involved with any action packed
Starship battles that take place. Sec/Tac Officers tend to be suspicious
about every unknown vessel that comes into contact with their ship or
station. This is entirely in keeping with their duties, as they have the
responsibility to see that no enemies catch them unaware. Leave the
diplomatic duties to the CO and First Officer, the Sec/Tac Officer is all
about offense and defense.

They also oversee all security measures that need to be
taken, both on the vessel or installation in which they are stationed and
on those occasions that crew members need to leave the ship/installation
on official business, such as away team duty. Sec/Tac Officers are
responsible for handling intruders, supervising security on away teams,
providing unobtrusive but safe escort for diplomats, etc. They
oversee any aspects of a mission involving the personal safety of those
involved as well as the safety and security of any persons or objects in
their care. The Sec/Tac Officers should work on all aspects of security
in the sim including, though not limited to, registering weapons, upkeep
of the brig, providing security for guests, routine security patrols,
drills and so forth.

ENGINEERING

The Chief Engineer and his engineers are the mechanics of the ship, they
are responsible for all power generation, computer systems and propulsion
systems. The engineers are often considered the miracle workers of the
ship, when the Captain asks for the impossible he very frequently looks to
his engineers to pull it off. Engineers usually work in Engineering but
they can work on the bridge at a computer console if necessary.

DIPLOMATIC
CORPS

The Diplomatic Officer or diplomatic liaison is responsible for any
contacts with governments. In essence their role puts them at the
forefront of all issues that require diplomatic finesse. This role can be
combined with that of Intelligence Officer.

INTELLIGENCE

The Intelligence Officer is responsible to represent the interests of
Starfleet Intelligence. Collection and summarization of gathered
information are the main ship board duties of this department. Also,
occasional undercover/covert assignments when the need arises. This role
can be extremely interesting.

Second
Officer

In normal ship functions, the Second Officer would typically be the
Operations Officer. Their insight into the morale of the crew gives the SO
an unparalleled foreknowledge in the expectations of the crew in key
moments. Starfleet Command and the Commanding Officer of the Prospero have
assigned the ship's dedicated Second Officer command-level codes in the
event the Captain and XO has become incapacitated. Otherwise, the Second
Officer during non-red alert situations would be the Shift Officer on any
given shift.